Dr. Dudley Flood, the namesake of The Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity (Flood Center), is an educational trailblazer, who served as a teacher and principal before being tasked with helping desegregate schools in North Carolina. He was also a coach, a role that taught him how to take hits and keep going, a measure known as “yards after contact.”
Speaking to a group of over 800 diverse education stakeholders at the Color of Education Summit (Color of Ed) in Raleigh on Oct. 7, Dr. Flood shared the importance of yards after contact not just in football but in life. He said what is most remembered is how one advances beyond the obstacles along the path forward.
Focused on the theme of co-creating equitable spaces in education, Color of Ed is an evolving story that builds upon a sense of collective power — a power that was ultimately met by a simple yet profound call to action from the former coach and forever educator, Dr. Flood.
“You have to go out now and run the play.”
Color of Ed is a partnership between the Public School Forum of North Carolina, Duke University’s Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity and Center for Child and Family Policy, and Sandra Wilcox Conway of Conway and Associates. This year’s summit focused on co-creating equitable spaces in education by recognizing history, celebrating success, and cultivating collective power.
